The was constructed in 1903 by David Nichols McBride (1849-1928). The house was built from Alibates dolomite stones quarried from the nearby canyon rim, now part of the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. After McBride's death in 1928, family heirs maintained ownership of the ranchhouse property in McBride Canyon, as it came to be called, until 1963. At that time they sold it to the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority upon the construction of Lake Meredith. The house lay dilapidated and neglected until the early 1970s, when it was restored to its original condition by the National Park Service and the Potter County Historical Survey Committee